LODDON Valley league clubs will have an extra $10,000 available in their salary caps next season.

AFL Central Victoria has lifted the salary cap for the Loddon Valley league from $120,000 to $130,000 in 2018.

A $130,000 salary cap averages out to $8125 per game over 16 home and away rounds, compared to $7500 this year.

And averaged out over 22 players, it’s $369 per game, up from $340 this year under the full amount.

However, while it’s a $10,000 increase, the Loddon Valley league’s salary cap is still $10,000 shy of both the Heathcote District and North Central leagues, which will again be $140,000 per club.

“The feeling with the commission was that with Loddon Valley being at $120,000 it meant they became a ground for some North Central and Heathcote District league clubs to look at to try to recruit from,” AFLCV region manager Carol Cathcart said on Friday.

“Given their salary cap of $120,000 Loddon Valley clubs didn’t have a lot of room to move to try to retain players.

“Part of what we wanted to do was try to assist Loddon Valley league clubs in retaining their players who they had and we needed to close that salary cap gap a bit to be able to do that.”

The Bendigo league salary cap will remain at $160,000.

• 2018 salary cap figures:

Averages based on paying full amount:

BENDIGO:

Salary cap: $160,000

Average per game: $8888

Average per player: $404

(22 players)

HEATHCOTE DISTRICT:

Salary cap: $140,000

Average per game: $8750

Average per player: $397

(22 players)

NORTH CENTRAL:

Salary cap: $140,000

Average per game: $8750

Average per player: $416

(21 players)

LODDON VALLEY:

Salary cap: $130,000

Average per game: $8125

Average per player: $369

(22 players)

………………………

Meanwhile, AFLCV has also released its new club player point allocations for 2018.

Of the 36 clubs across the Bendigo, Heathcote District, Loddon Valley and North Central leagues, 22 will remain unchanged from their 2017 allocations.

One of the focuses of the panels determining the point allocations for each league was to take a tiered approach.

The Bendigo (38, 43, 46), Heathcote District (40, 43, 46) and Loddon Valley (40, 46, 48) leagues each have three tiers of point allocations, while North Central (40, 43) has two.

In Bendigo, Castlemaine and Maryborough have each had a point added to increase from 45 to 46, while Gisborne (-3) and Kyneton (-2) have had points deducted to be part of the 43-point tier, along with Kangaroo Flat and South Bendigo.

Eaglehawk, Golden Square, Sandhurst and reigning premier Strathfieldsaye will remain on their 38 points, which is based on “large population base, strong junior systems and reasonable success”.

In Heathcote District, North Bendigo after playing in a fourth grand final in a row has had its allocation reduced from 42 to 40.